So, two weeks into the Race and I am just starting to realize that I am not going to sleep in my own bed, see my family and best friends, snuggle my dog, or eat chipotle in the next 11 months. I am currently living in Cote d’Ivoire in a house with 14 other people. Our luxury of warm water ended just as fast as our excitement for it began. We do our laundry in buckets with hose water so we smell pretty nice (bet you’re glad you’re not within smelling distance). I quickly learned that my three known languages don’t help me at all in this country.
With that in mind, everything is so amazingly good here and so is God.
We were out talking about Jesus in a marketplace and one wise man asked us why we would leave America and our comfort zone to do all this. I’ve been asked this a couple times when I was in the States so I began to tell him how God called me to the Race. Well, I could tell that it wasn’t enough for him and I realized it wasn’t enough for me to just pick up the phone and answer the call. I needed to live out the call. There was so much craziness planning for the Race. Now that I’m finally here …what’s next? It’s a lot to lose if you think about it. I left my already wonderful and supportive community, my home, my car, my independence, my culture, and my comforts.
However, what I’m gaining in return is so precious.
God is teaching me so much. Ivorian people are some of the friendliest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. The culture of West Africa is showing me to slow down and enjoy the small moments. My teammates are graciously allowing me to stumble through my feelings/struggles (unchartered territory) and letting me do the same for them. We have had the opportunity to introduce Jesus’ love to strangers and have been shown so much of Jesus’ love by strangers.
This month, we have been partnering with a local church called La Maison de la Destinee, The House of Destiny. Cliche as it sounds, it’s destiny that my squad and I are here, at this time, on this World Race. These people we meet and minister to were no coincidence. Our struggles living in this foreign country were no coincidence. The changes we are going through are not going to be coincidences. I believe we need to let God have the space to show up and boy, will He.
Thank you Jesus for the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Ephesians 3:14-19
For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
